User blog:Racconcityangel/Tuesday Truths: Gaming in Media.
Hey Boffers and Bikini Babes! Welcome to Tuesday Truths: investigating and dispelling gamer myths faster than a wizard with a fireball fetish loses an eyebrow. Forgive my tardiness, last week's blog was lost to a WMD (wikia maintenence debacle.) I shall trudge on, dear readers, as this s a subject near and dear to my heart: Gaming, and gamers, as presented in the movies, television, and webshows. Or, as it should be called, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. First item in question: The Gamers: Dorkness Rising All Lodge wants is to finish and submit his adventure to be published, but first his party has to survive to the end of the story. The big snag here is that his group is lacking a centering force, and a valiant NPC (non-player character) to keep them in line. As the GM, Lodge brings in a new player, the Ellusive Female Gamer, (who immediately has her competence questioned when another player builds her a bikini babe to play,) and a Paladin NPC who is a major tool... for him to move the plot foreward. This movie, by Dead Gentlemen Productions , is presented in a unique way, showing the actors as both players and characters. Dorkness Rising is full of gamer references and stereotypes, but is not cruel or demeaning about it. It is apparently a sequel to a gaming movie i've never seen, but features none of the original characters or styles of filming, so it's basically another film all together. Overall, i give this one a 7 out of 10 for showing honestly funny gaming, and giving plot to what otherwise might j ust be a BTS (Big Tarrasque Story: So there i was, surrounded by an army of Tarrasqui!) Changing genre, we have Monster Camp, a campy look into the world of LARP (live action roleplaying). This documentary follows a group of NERO (a cross between medieval reenactment, and those guys that dress up like Drizzt Do-Urden) players through a season of weekend-long games. Being a documentary, the stereotypes are created by the players and not the director, who can only really mangle things in editting. As far as i can tell, he didn't have to try hard to make these guys look a little odd. Even with that considered, this is an interesting peek into the lives of the slightly reality-challenged (and this is coming from someone who has played a little bit of everything.) The only really bad part of this movie is looking into the personal lives of the players and staff who had issues with a certain MMORPG that shall not be named. I can honestly say that this is a sweet (if painful) example of a gamer subset that even most D&D players have never seen. I give it a 6 out of 10 for eccentricity. Last but not least, we have a webshow that has gained a lot of popularity in the last year: The Guild This show chronicles the life of Cyd (the adorable Felicia Day, of Dr. Horrible fame), an online game addict as she deals with the unwanted affections of a formerly online guildmate. Cyd calls upon her other Guildies to help her get rid of him and they actually meet, in person! (Big deal when it comes to online games.) This webshow was kind of hard for me to watch, as the stereotypes are incredibly prevelent and sort of derisive. As a person who has seen friends totally disconnect from reality in favor of an online game, i can see some truth in all the characters. But, for the millions of people out there who play games as games are meant to be played, i have to give this one a 4 out of 10 for an overly stereotypical view. Some of us can laugh at it, but some of us also need therapy. There are a ton more examples i could reference from when it comes to gaming in media, but i have neither the time, nor the inclination. The moral of this story is that, unlike the early D&D myths of demon worship and suicide pacts, the modern take of gamers in pop culture is only that they're slightly strange. Very few movies in the last ten years show gamers as anything but a bit weird and a little inclusive. We can relate a bit when we see a rules lawyer-type on film or paper, someone who takes a few more hours at a game they find soothing, and the people who dress up like wizards a couple weekends a year. Not every gamer is the same, but we all share something in common: a desire to have fun and enjoy the company of like-minded weirdos. Until next week, dorks. Racconcityangel 18:49, June 8, 2010 (UTC) Category:Tuesday Truths Category:Blog posts